Ada’s Influence grows

1970s International language for safety-critical systems is named Ada, now runs major aircraft, trains, regulated systems

USA then British adopt Ada as hero and model for STEM programs that raise money, “Finding Ada” October Ada Lovelace day newsletter, podcast

Lovelace papers public at Bodline library at Oxford, Difference Engine at British Museum

Ada’s Contributions

(Universality) “the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves”
.
The Analytic Engine can operate on not only numbers but also music, and symbols.
(but how could she foretell modern “packets of data representing persons”

(Point of View) Ada wanted to create a “calculus of neurons” from knowledge about the brain and thinking, but could not imagine “fake news” and “political lies”.

Defined key ideas of programming

(Basic control structure of programming) The Analytic Engine could compute in loops under control of variables on punched cards rather than long sequences of operations

(Optimization) Her concept of loops could improve the programs for existing Jacquard looms.

(Originality and Exploration) The Analytic Engine assists, does what it’s told, cannot originate. However, assisting a scientist can lead to discovery and insight into the problem and solutions.

(Cooperation Wins) Lovelace brought a clear exposition to Babbage’s rambling models. Both spoke “math-ese” and enjoyed contemporary formulations of physical problems and theories. They corresponded freely without email or social media. Neither needed money to live on. Neither had the burdens of a job, e.g. meetings, colleagues. Both had meaningful family structures. Their minds abstracted differently, based on computational thinking. They partnered well.

Long Quotations

(
Source: “Untangling Ada” by Stephen Wolfram

Good Work Habits Matter

“My Dear Babbage. I am in much dismay at having got into so amazing a quagmire & botheration with these Numbers, that I cannot possibly get the thing done today. …. I am now going out on horseback. Tant mieux.”

Later she told Babbage: “I have worked incessantly, & most successfully, all day. You will admire the Table & Diagram extremely. They have been made out with extreme care, & all the indices most minutely & scrupulously attended to.” Then she added that William (or “Lord L.” as she referred to him) “is at this moment kindly inking it all over for me. I had to do it in pencil…”

A Practical Proposal — Rejected

“Your affairs have been, & are, deeply occupying both myself and Lord Lovelace…. And the result is that I have plans for you…” Then she proceeds to ask, “If I am to lay before you in the course of a year or two, explicit & honorable propositions for executing your engine … would there be any chance of allowing myself … to conduct the business for you; your own undivided energies being devoted to the execution of the work …”

“Enchantress of” NUMBER

Babbage wrote “Enchantress of Number” and “my dear and much admired Interpreter”. (

Does “Enchantress of Number” differ from “Enchantress of NumberS”?

Mathematical Points of View

“It does not appear to me that cerebral matter need be more unmanageable to mathematicians than sidereal & planetary matter & movements; if they would but inspect it from the right point of view. I hope to bequeath to the generations a Calculus of the Nervous System.”

Universality

“We may consider the engine as the material and mechanical representative of analysis, and that our actual working powers in this department of human study will be enabled more effectually than heretofore to keep pace with our theoretical knowledge of its principles and laws, through the complete control which the engine gives us over the executive manipulation of algebraical and numerical symbols.”

A little later, she explains that punched cards are how the Analytical Engine is controlled, and then makes the classic statement that

Computational Originality

“The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform…. Its province is to assist us in making available what we are already acquainted with.”

Mathematician Stephen Wolfram’s Tribute

Note: Wolfram developed Mathematica, a symbolic math system, now extended to many applications and an app, Wolfram Alpha.

The story of Ada and Babbage has many interesting themes. It is a story of technical prowess meeting abstract “big picture” thinking. It is a story of friendship between old and young. It is a story of people who had the confidence to be original and creative.

It is also a tragedy. A tragedy for Babbage, who lost so many people in his life, and whose personality pushed others away and prevented him from realizing his ambitions. A tragedy for Ada, who was just getting started in something she loved when her health failed.

We will never know what Ada could have become. Another Mary Somerville, famous Victorian expositor of science? A Steve-Jobs-like figure who would lead the vision of the Analytical Engine? Or an Alan Turing, understanding the abstract idea of universal computation?

That Ada touched what would become a defining intellectual idea of our time was good fortune. Babbage did not know what he had; Ada started to see glimpses and successfully described them.

… But the challenge is to be enough of an Ada to grasp what’s there—or at least to find an Ada who does. But at least now I think I have an idea of what the original Ada born 200 years ago today was like: a fitting personality on the road to universal computation and the present and future achievements of computational thinking.

Susan L. Geerhart, for YC OLLI course on “Women of Imagination” with Carol Hammond covering oMary Shelley and the book/play/movie “Frankenstei”. Other topics include: Count Buffon, Thomas Jefferso, and the American “Degeneracy Theory”; the Tambora volcano eruption of 1815 and the ensuing climate disruptions; the beginning of the industrial age; and characteristics of imagination and creativity. October 31 2018-December 2018 Yavapai College OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), Prescott Arizona

Course Description

Twitter is the social network based on 140 character messages.
First, learn the vocabulary “tweet/re-tweet,” “follow,” and
“hashtag.” Then set up an account at Twitter.com and find an application
or free mobile app you like. Identify people, organizations,
or publications that interest you to follow. Speak up when
you’re ready and find your own followers, i.e. “join the conversations.”
We’ll explore typical virtual communities of book authors,
breaking news, Apple Keep an Open Mind, and follow the seeing
eye of slger123 with 450 followers, following 650, and over 2000
tweets.

Climate-Centered Fiction — Prescott OLLI, Spring 1, 2018

Course Description

We will read short stories from an anthology,
Loosed Upon the World, edited by John
Joseph Adams (available on Amazon for
about $10). Icebergs, rising seas, population
migration, water wars, animal mutation, seed
vaults, drought, smog, carbon re-absorption,
entangled technology, and many more
climate-based situations force humans into
action in the near future. For example, how
does an Everglades community decide its fate
as seas rise?

We’ll learn more about climate
science and societal adaptations happening
now. Several story authors are well known
in science fiction. Stories are empathetic,
down to Earth with human characters. Some
geographical settings are nearby. We’ll also
sample contemporary actions from the
America Adapts podcast and the ASU Climate
Futures Initiative.